Selected quad for the lemma: soul_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
soul_n	body_n	death_n	separation_n	20,420	5	10.8447	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60326	Comforts against the fear of death. Being some short meditations, composed by that precious gentlewoman Mrs. Anne Skelton, late of Norwich Wherein are several evidences of the work of grace in her own soul, which were the stay of her heart, against the fear of death; from which may be discerned the name of a true Christian spirit. To which is added some short notes of a sermon preached at the burial of that choyce servant of God in St. Andrews in Norwich. By John Collings M.A. and one of the most unworthy embassadors of Jesus Christ for the preaching of the gospel in the late city.	Skelton, Anne.; Collinges, John, 1623-1690. aut.	1649 (1649)	Wing S3932A; ESTC R221500	38,402	100

Andr●w● in Norw●●● HO●●● 13. 14. O death I will ●● thy plagues O grave I will be thy destraction THis Chapter easily divideth it self into three parts 1. A grievous Reprehension to v. 10. 2. A sad Comination from the 10. to the 14. verse 3. A seasonable Consolation from the beginning of the verse where my Text is co●ch● to the end of the Chapter My Text begins the last part of the Chapter The sense of which is ambiguously controverted by Expositors Some will have it to be a promise meerly relating to the deliverance of the Jews out of Captivity in which sense some conc●ive the same phrase almost taken Isai 25. 8. But it is plain from the Apostles Commentary 2 Cor. 15. 55. that it is not to be restrained to that sense The Hebrews opinion is altogether for it But Christian Interpreters g●ided by the Apostle generally render it a prediction of the deliverance of the Elect from Sin Death and Hell by the Lord Jesus Christ Some Controversie there is yet amongst them about the direct sense some amongst which is Calvin and Oecolampadius will have it to be a spiritual promise but conditional as if the sens● were this If they had repented and turned unto me I had delivered them even from the gates of Death But Jerom with others make it an absolute promise of a Redemption from from Sin and Death by Christ and will make the words to be the speech of Christ promising Redemption to his Elect. Joyn both together and the sense is perfectly this Christ doth here promise Redemption to his Elect under the type of the deliverance of the Children of Israel ou● of Babylon The deliverance of the Children of Israel out of Babylon was ●ypical That 's promised here viz. That after a certain time he would redeem them out of the power of the Babylonish Captivity where they should lye as buried for a while But the Antitype was the Elect of God ●o whom Christ promiseth a Redemption from Death and the Grave I I the Lord Jesus Christ Jehovah the second Person in the Trinity Will Ransom Redeem It signifies to deliver out of some bondage by vertue of a price paid by another for his friend I will pay the debt due to my Fathers Justice and Wrath and buy them out of their natural slavery Them The Elect in a spiritual sense the Jews in a plain sense as the words are a promise of a deliverance out of the Babylonish Captivity From the hand of the Grave that is the power of the Grav● To be in ones hand is to be in their power therefore our Translation readeth it power Of the Grave The Ba●ylonish Grave if you look upon the promise as meerly respecting them 1. Sin 2. Death and 3. Hell are all here understood So the Apostle applies it 1. Cor. 15. Thus Christ hath fulfilled it for his Saints I will redeem th●m from death It is but a repetition of wh●t was promised before The word is doubled for it is certain O death Christ speaks O death Spiritual Temporal Eternal I will be thy plagues O grave I will be thy destruction I Jesus Christ will be by my coming and dying and rising again will be in time 't is yet but a little while but I will come and tread upon thy neck thy plagues Jerom and Ambrose read ●t 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thy contention I will engage in the quarrel betwixt thee and my elected ones Death had a quarrel against all the children of Adam by vertue of that original word In the day that thou ●atest thereof thou shalt surely dye Others read it Plagues or Destruction The difference ariseth from the ne●rness of kin that is betwixt the Heb. words signifying Contention and the Hebr●w word signifying Plagues The Greeks read it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Victory I will be thy Co●●ueror Others read it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Punishment just Punishment c. I will be thy ●in● with Justice O grave I will be thy destruction Thy sting thy cutting off Here Christ saith I will be The Apostle triumpheth as of the thing done 2 Cor. 15. 55. O death where 's thy sting c. Christ having then dyed conquered death risen and asc●nded You have now the sense If you look on the whole Verse you have in it these three parts 1. A redemption promised in which you may note 1. The Redeem●● I Christ. 2. The Act I will redeem 3. The Redeemed Them 4. The time I will 5. The slavery Death the Grave 2. The manner of this redemption 1. By himself I being ●●aths ●uine 2. With a price paid I will redeem 3. The confirmation of it Repe●●●ance shall be hi● from mi●● eyes I cannot change or eat my words I have said it and it shall be done My Text contains the second part where you have Christ threatning death to be its plagues and the grave to be its destruction The Doctrine is shortly this Doct. Christ for his Believers is become deaths plague and the graves destruction There is no change in the Doctrine from the very words of the Text only what Christ here spake in the future tense I will I have put in the preterperfect tense as the Apostle Christ prophesied his coming by Hosea we preach the prophesie fulfilled Two things would here for Explication be enquired into 1. What death Christ is a plague to 2. How Christ became the plague of death and the destruction of the grave to his people The distinction of death is ordinarily known 1. Spiritual which is the souls death in sin We were all of us dead in sins 2. Temporal which is the separation of the soul from the body 3. The third is Eternal The death of body and soul for ever The first consists in the separation of the soul from God The second in the separation of the body from the soul The third in the separation of both body and soul from the presence of God for ever If it be askt concerning which of these Christ speaks and to which of these Christ is a plague and destruction I shortly answer to all First he is a plague to the Spiritual Death a destruction to that grave Ephes 2. 1 5. You hath be quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins By reason of Adams fall all the elect became dead in sins and children of wrath by nature as well as others Christ coming quickens the dead soul with his enlivening Grace Ezek. 16. 6. I said unto thee while thou wert in thy blood live yea I said unto thee while thou wert in thy blood live O death Spiritual Death he hath been he is he will dayly be thy plague Secondly He is a plague to Temporal Death Indeed it is the last enemy that shall be put under the Conquerors feet before he resigneth up the Kingdom to his Father First He is a plague to it for he hath delivered us out of the power of it he hath made the door

that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. O death Christ dying hath been thy death And so for eternal death for he hath by his death satisfied so satisfied his Fathers Wrath that now the second death shall have no power over us ●ly Christ is the plague of death by his rising power The power of Christs Resurrection is great upon death Therefore the Apostle tells us Rom. 6. 4. That like as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of his Father even so also Col. 3. 1. we should walk in newness of life being first planted into the likeness of his death then of his resurrection Vers 5. Christ rising in himself was the plague of temporal death Dying he was a servant to it Rising he became the Conqu●ror over it Being the first fruits of them that sleep in the grave 1 Corinth 15. 20. And rising he became the plague of death for his people His Resurrection was but a type and a prophesie that those that that sleep in the dust shall have a morning to awake in this the Apostle fully proves in the former part of his 15. Chap. of the first Epistle to the Corinthians it is a pillar upon which all the Saints of God ought to build their faith in the Article of the resurrection of the body And from that premise an undenyable argument may be brought to confirm ou● Faith in the resurrection of the body as the Apostle disputes there yea and his resurrection was the plague of eternal death for by his resurrection the love declared in his death b●came victorious and his death m●●●orious it would have a●gued that the d●bt had not been payd to infinite Jus●ice if the prisoner had not been se●●t liberty by the resurrection of his body Now who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect It is God that justifieth Who is he that condemneth It is Christ that dy●d yea rather that risen is again Rom. 8. 34. But the freeing of the priso●er argues the ransom is payd and Justice satisfied Fourthly Christ by his a●c●nding and living in Glory is become the plague of death Spiritual death is thus destroyed as soon as it begins to ●reep upon the Saints of God Christ sitteth at the right hand of God to make intercession for them Rom. 8. 34. And now we know that if we sin we have an Advocate with the Father even Christ the Righteous 1 Joh. 2. 1. Thus Temporal death was destroyed for it appeared by this That he did not come out of the grave with deaths leave upon condition to return a prisoner again Rev. 1. 18. He lives that was dead and is alive for evermore He rose no Eph. 4. 8. more to go down to the prison again thus Eternal Death is destroyed too For In that we know our Redeemer lives we know we shall see him with these eyes and live with him in Glory Therefore the Psalmist putteth them together He hath ascended up on high and led Captivity all kind of Captivity Captive In that he is ascended to his Father and our Father our God and his God We know Ioh. 20. 17 Ioh. 14. 3. he is not amissus but praemissus not lost but gone before to prepare a place for us and that he will one day come again and receive us to himself that where he is there we may be also Lastly He will yet be the plague and destruction of death and the grave by his freeing and acquitting power at the great day when he shall come to judg the quick and dead when he shall come in his Glory and shall sound the Trumpet to a Resurrection Gather my Saints together those that have made a Covenant with 1 Cor. 15. 16 me by Sacrifice Then shall there not the least smell of the death of sin remain about the bodies or souls of his Servants then the prison of the grave shall fly open and be shut no more for ever all the bars and locks of the grave shall fly off and death it self shall be destroyed and all bodies have a liberavit then shall the Robes of Righteousness be put on the souls and bodies of his Saints and the Crown of Glory shall be put upon their heads even the Crown of Everlasting Life then shall all the redeemed ones of the Lord be actually declared before all the world to be free for ever not only from the first but the second death and the Saints that have been buried in Christs Death and quickened by his Resurrection shall for ever live with him in Glory and sing for ever O death where 's thy sting O hell where 's thy victory Thus Christ is the plague of Death and the destruction of the Grave I have done with the Doctrinal part and am come to Application First It shall serve for Instruction secondly for Consolation and lastly for Exhortation First For Instruction It may instruct us how wonderfully beholden every Saint of God is to the Lord Jesus Christ. 1. Do but consider what he hath done for thee He hath delivered thee Is that all No he hath redeemed thee it argues a price paid for thee to deliver thee from sin the grave and hell We●t not thou all mired with sin under the power and command of sin a slave to thy base lusts and corruptions dead in trespasses and sins Who hath quickened thee Who hath said to thee in thy blood live Was it not h● that hath here said O death I will be thy death Who shall deliver me from this body of death saith the Apostle O w●etched man that I am c. Rom. 7. 24 25 I thank God through Jesus Christ o●● Lord. O death he is thy death 2. Thou art redeemed from the power of the grave and from the bitterness of it Who hath done this Was it not he again that took flesh and became partaker with us of it that through death he might destroy him that had the power of it and deliver them that all their life time through fear were subject to bondage 3. Who hath saved thee from the second death from hell and eternal torments but thy Saviour who hath put this song into thy mouth O hell where 's thy victory B●t consider again how Jesus Christ hath done this by his own dying Christ dyed in the flesh that thou mayst not dye in thy sins himself tasted the bitterness of the cup that he might leave it sweet to all his children Is not thy heart won with his love Christian Dost thou see him encounter thy three great enemies the first the second the third death for so I may call them Dost thou see him dying in the fight and conquering by his dying pains O my Soul thou art drawn with strong cords of love run after him Secondly From hence we may learn of what use and comfort every Act of Christ is and may be to believers His death his rising his ascension

have liberty to go sit with her God Her Closet work was no chambering and wantoness but a serious study to make he●●●●lling and election sure To this end she reads with understanding observing and carefully transcribing the promises she had gathered up her Bonds and knew how much God was in his Word an accomptant to her Soul and was never in want but she had a Bond to put in sute knowing that he was faithful that had promised She was a consciencious attender upon God in his Ordinances and it was her practise not to hear as one that looks his natural face in a glass that presently goeth away and forgetteth what manner of man he was She would observe mater al passages and upon her retirements record them with her pen if in any thing ●● doubted she ceased not till she was satisfied And whereas it is the too blame-worthy practise of Christians to seek cavils against themselves striving by their cavillings to unsettle their spirits she rather stadyed to make it her work to find what interest God had in her Soul then what she might have to say against her self nor in this was her labour without fruit Thou shalt read here what a writing she had drawn for Heaven to make it sure to her Soul and 〈…〉 had striven so the Lord had crowned her Souls endeavours with such an assurance as failed not her Soul in her dying hour It was my happiness to be a witness to the latter end of her life It pleased God to continue her holy day to the last hour in such a measure that Death had not an ill look from her There mightst thou haue seen Christian what a conquest Christ had made over Death and Hell Death had in her truly lost his sting and Hell was cheated of its victory Captivity was led Captive I shall commend to thee this little piece penned with her own hand by which thou mayst dis●●●● with what an excellency of Graces as well as Gifts the Lord had crowned her I commend it to thee not to be read only but that as by a true touch●●one thou mayst try thy own Soul by it and find whether thou beest ready to dye or no. Thou shalt find this choice Servant of God dealing truly with her own heart neither presumptuously flattering nor unwarrantabl● dejecting her own Spirit For what of ●●ine is added I beseech thee take the goodwill that he that offers it bears to thy Soul I acknowledg there is nothing of a Schollar in it if there be the more of Christ let God have the Glory thy Soul the benefit and the Author thy prayers who is Thy true Servant in the work of the Lord Jesus John Collings From my study Aug. 27 1648. Infallable Signes OF Saving Grace Each one an Evidence for Heaven each Evidence an Antidote against the Fear of Death Death being to the Soul endowed with Grace only Heavens Gate to enter in by or through it to Eternal Glory and Happiness IT is a ●rrevokable decree of Heaven that all men must once dye yea it is the Law of the God of Nature and must be obeyed no avoiding it The Scripture faith it is appointed to all men once to dye Therefore oh my Soul seeing there is no escap●●● Death thy only way is to prepare for in get the sting of it taken away so shall it not hurt thee nor be terrible to thee no cause then to fear Death for it shall be but a messenger sent from God thy Father to fetch thee home to him and free thee from all sins which is thy greatest burden and all sorrows and miseries that sin occasioneth and carry thee to Heaven to Happiness and Glory to thy Saviour and Redeemer the Lord Jesus Christ to raign with him for ever in Heaven Now the only way to make Death thus to thee is to clear up thy evidences for Heaven Wherefore on my Soul get thee more Interest in Christ make that more sure to thy self that Christ is thine and thou art his and then no cause at all for thee to fear death As it is certain that Death will come even to thee as well as to others so is it most uncertain the time when it shall come Therefore my Soul defer it not for it stands thee as much upon as thy life may as thy eternal well being for evermore to make that sure to thy self even now while it is called to day and that upon good grounds that thou hast a sure title to Heaven art an heir of it and hast an Interest in Christ then it shall be well with thee after Death that shall be a happy change for thee no cause then to fear it Therefore oh my Soul why art thou so cast down And why art thou so disquieted within me And why fearest thou Death so much Hast thou not some Evidences of Truth of Saving Grace to prove thou art in Christ Darest thou deny it Thou canst not Oh therefore now clear them up view them well again meditate on them seriously bless God for them and let them support and comfort thee against the fear of Death at all times in all extremities or distresles whatsoever may befall thee Consider seriously with thy self hath not God promised to support thee in and deliver thee out of all afflictions and distresses in the best time and mean while that all shall work for thy good Therefore trust thou in him for he never fails any that trust in him rest thou on his promise and he will make it good to thee The first ground work of Grace in thee ●s this God hath given thee the sight of thy self thy sinful wretched and miserable yea damnable condition by nature thy sins both many and great as well thy in●●nd corruption of which David complains Psalm 51. 5. As also thy continued actual transgressions all thy life along which are the fruits of that bitter root either outward or inward to wit thy natural aversness to all good pronness to evil perversness of heart rebelliousness of will disorder of affections and distemper of thy whole Soul in every part not as a meer natural disturbance only but as a spiritual disease a wicked and wretched disposition evil in it self of it self displeasing to God and deserving his curse and damnation of thy Soul and body although it should never break forth into any actual excess And now my Soul hath not God also in some measure humbled thee and broken thy heart too for thy sins Are they not a burden too heavy for thee to bear Wert thou not once in thirte own apprehension in a most desperate condition ready to sink under the load of them Therefore oh my Soul ●o Christ calleth thee to come to him and promiseth he will ease thee Mat. 11. 28. There is a promise for thy faith to rest on apply it to thy self to support thee Dost thou not confess th●● to God bewailing 〈◊〉 with great grief and sorrow of heart

Soul have I sought or desired thee in the night and with my spirit within me will I seek thee in the morning As Isaiah 26. 8 9. For whom have I in Heaven but thee and I have desired none in the Earth with thee As Psalm 73. 25. And thou hatest sin as it is a breach of Gods Law Another Evidence of Gods Love to thee That at such times as thou hast renued thy Faith in Christ and again given up thy self in more solemn manner wholy to him God thereupon hath given ease to thy heart which is a sign that he accepted what thou gavest him and that he wil not cast thee away I know whom I have believed that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him as 2 Tim. 1. 12. And I am perswaded he will do so And my Soul since thou hast found favor in the eyes of God that he hath been pleased to manifest his Grace to thee consider what cause thou hast of comfort and joy Now that it may be aright conceived what Grace I mean There is a twofold meaning of the word Grace in Scripture First It is taken for the gracious good Will or Favor of God where by he is pleased of his own free love to accept of some in Christ for his own This Divines call first Grace because it is the fountain of all other Grace and the spring from whence they flow and it 's therefore called Grace because it makes a man gracious with God but this is only in God Secondly Grace is taken for the gifts of Grace and they are of two sorts Common or special Some are common to both Elect and Reprobates Believers and Hypocrites As Knowledg a gift of prayer and the like Some are special Graces and they are proper to the Saints therefore called saving Graces whereof some are most principal and absolutely necessary unto Salvation such as is Faith without which none can be saved And some other which are very comfortable as the feeling of Gods love Peace of Conscience Joy in the Holy Ghost Now if God have first of his gracious good will and free love accepted thee in Christ And secondly if he have given thee any evidence of the same by the saving graces of his holy Spirit wrought in thee which thou darest not deny then O my soul bless praise and magnifie this God of love for this his infinite unutterable and superabounding love to thee Hath he given thee any grace It s because he loves thee and truly no cause at all why God should love thee as thou art in thy self but the clean contrary rather to hate and abhor thee But he looks upon thee in his onely begotten and dearly beloved son the Lord Jesus Christ God-man and seeing no other means in all the world to save thee Gods love was so great That he gave his onely begotten son to die for thee And see here also the exceeding great love of Christ to thee that gave himself to dye for thee took thy nature on him stood in thy steed fulfilled the Law satisfied the justice of God for thy sin He suffered on the Cross for thee he procured pardon of sin salvation and heaven for thee he merited it all for thee for his was worthy his righteousness is the meritorious cause of thy justification He is now thy Redeemer thy Advocate that pleads thy cause for thee to God he makes peace with God for thee he ●its at the right hand of God the Father and makes intercession for thee God is now become of a just severe and angry Judg a loving Father in him Therefore now my soul receive all from him by promise that shews his love as a Father Oh the free and sweet love that is in an uncompelled promised I will love thee freely saith the Lord Hosea 14. 4. It s free love indeed in God to thee wards Oh therefore let this special free love of God cause thee to study how to return love to him and live to him Remember what he hath done for thee how thy sins wounded thy Saviour peirced and crucified him and nailed him to the cross how thy sins made his most precious body be overrun with his heart blood how thy own betraying and selling thy soul to sin and Satan made him to be betrayed and fold to suffer and die yea how he indured the torments of Hell as it were the most heavy and sorest wrath of his Father for thy sin What O what great and vehement love was in Christ thy Saviour that made him sweat drops of blood for thee my soul These are as so many cords of love from Christ to thee to cause thee to love Christ Oh that I could love thee my dear Saviour as I should It s my hearts grief that I cannot so love thee as I would Oh my dull and drousie soul awake rouze and quicken up thy self and stand amazed at this love of Christ Shall or can so many sweet expressions of such unexpressible love of Christ to thee pass without Eccho Shall every passage of Christ from his birth to his death all preach forth love to thee And shall thankfulness be wanting in thee towards him Shall his birth work thy new birth his cross take away thy curse Shall his pains procure thee rest Shalt thou ●e cleared by his sorrowful sadness Thou be made free by his bonds happy by his misery fed by his hunger refresht by his weariness rejoyced by his anguish Thou my Soul be excused before God by his being accused before men And shall not love flush and burn in my brest to him Oh my God do thou inflame my heart with this Love kindle some further heat of Love in me give me one dr●● more of it draw up my Love and most entire intimate affections Shall I as it were freeze for want of Love to my Saviour when his Love is so hot to me Far be it from me No my loving Lord I do love thee I will love thee dearly Oh help and enable me to love thee more Oh my Soul sleep not under such Comforts never forget such love as this is it is sufficient to fill all thy sences all thine affections And yet see more This Love is not only for some years but for eternity Whom he once loves he loves to the end as John 13. 1. He is a never failing Fountain of Love Oh my Soul therefore distrust not despair not of his Love though thou art so full of sins which indeed of all things God hates most yet behold the Love of God all these though so great so many they cannot separate between thee and thy God but in and through Christ he still loves thee accepts thy person and services It 's not some slips or falls that thou art overtaken withal that are hated resolved against not wittingly willingly deliberately committed nor delighted in nor allowed but slipt and fallen into unawares These cannot finite his infinite Love